Thom Hartmann on Countdown: This is an Absolute Consequence of Reaganomics

Heather, Crooks and Liars: Can we please see more of Thom Hartmann on the cable news networks? Good for David Shuster for bringing him on while filling in for Keith Olbermann on Countdown. They discuss the Republicans absolute hatred for unions and the labor movement and their reasons for wanting to destroy it. Thom also has a suggestion for the Obama administration to get the economy back on track. Read Alexander Hamilton's Report on Manufactures from 1791 which Thom has posted at his site.

Hartmann: David what he needs to do immediately is read Alexander Hamilton's 1791 report to Congress on manufactures. Hamilton laid out this six step plan to build an industrial economy in the United States and we followed it. We, Congress actually put into place in 1792 and it stood until Ronald Reagan came along and started deconstructing this, followed by George Herbert Walker Bush, Bill Clinton and George Bush now and the legislatures, mostly pushed by the Republicans taking this thing apart. You could argue some of this started with Taft-Hartley. But basically the founders laid this thing out. They had it figured out and it worked. We built the biggest industrial infrastructure and industrial economy in the world.

We have gone, when Reagan came into office we were the largest exporter of manufactured goods and the largest importer of raw materials on the planet. And the largest creditor. More people owed us money than anybody else in the world. Now just twenty eight years later we're the largest importer of finished goods, manufactured goods, exporter of raw materials which is kind of the definition of a third world nation and we're the most in debt of any country in the world. This is the absolute consequence of Reaganomics.